Monday, April 6, 2009

This is a simple yet surprisingly sophisticated dish from Richard Olney's Simple French Food. I've long been a fan of making scalloped potatoes with milk and/or cream. The use of beer makes the dish a little less rich, which can be a good thing, yet still flavorful, and the onions add a sophistication that I really enjoyed.

Butter the bottom and sides of a deep baking dish*, and then place alternate layers of onion and potatoes. Have your first layer be onions and the last be potatoes, and try to make your layers as densely packed as possible. Salt each layer lightly.

Pour the beer over the potatoes, and scatter thin shavings of butter all over the top. I used a pale lager for this dish, and think a pale ale would work well too. I'm curious to try it with a dark beer and will update this post when I do.

Place the dish into the oven and turn the heat down to 370F. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove and pour the cream over the surface, and then return to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.

*Note: Olney recommends a deep baking dish, and I understand why. You can see from the above photo that I used a pie dish, not having a deep, medium-sized baking vessel available at the time. The dish came out great but I was not able to pack in all the potatoes, which left the results a little too soupy. Not a problem flavor-wise, but it required more care when serving to not flood the plate.

If I'm not mistaken my friend Jeremiah Tower also worked on the Good Cook series with Richard in London... I'd think your father must also know, and might have worked with, Jeremiah? If so, very small world.

About this Blog

The Constables' Larder is the creation of Giff Constable and Lisl Dunlop as a canvas for exploring and sharing our love of food and wine.

The header photos are from a vineyard in Martinborough, NZ and the remains of a fabulous meal on the Greek isle of Serifos. We hail from Washington DC and Sydney, but these days we live in the New York City area. You can reach us at larder -at- constable -dot- net. We're also on Twitter.